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Frequently Asked Questions​

The following is a collection of answers to commonly asked questions. Additional resources are available on our website in numerous forms, guidance documents, and procedures & policies.

If you require further assistance, please view our contact list to direct your question to the appropriate email address or staff member.

Claims Administration

A CRC is a panel of three medical doctors that review Great-West Life’s (GWL) decision to deny or terminate a Long Term Disability (LTD) claim. They review the medical and vocational information used by GWL to determine whether or not the claimant is disabled, within the definition of disability contained in the Collective Agreement, and provide a decision in writing to the Trust.

The Long Term Disability CRC is be composed of three (3) medical doctors: one designated by the employee, one designated by the employer and the third (the Chairperson) to be mutually agreed upon and designated by the first two doctors. For BCNU members, the CRC will be comprised of three independent and qualified medical doctors.

The CRC’s decision is final and binding on all medical matters. However, claimants who are dissatisfied with the decision of the CRC on matters of interpretation may appeal that decision to the Labour Relations Board (under Section 99 of the Labour Relations Code).

The process takes several months. However, the time frame varies depending on the doctors schedules.

Early Retirement Incentive Benefit (ERIB)

ERIB is an incentive program offered to employees on LTD who meet certain criteria and who wish to retire sooner than age 65. ERIB enables eligible employees to retire onto the Municipal Pension Plan (or Public Service Pension Plan) without any long term loss in their pension benefits through a Lump Sum payment.

Eligible employees are those who are:

  • over age 55 (but under 63.5)
  • in receipt of LTD for more than 4 years, and not eligible for a Rehabilitation program

In order to be eligible, employees must have made sufficient contributions to the Pension Program.

No. Currently, the program is voluntary. However, bargaining has made participation mandatory for those covered under certain bargaining agreements.
Your basic monthly pension is calculated using a formula which takes into account your years of pensionable service and your earnings at the time you went onto LTD, indexed to reflect today’s values.
Medical Service Plan, Extended Health, and Dental Benefit coverage are contingent Benefits available through the Municipal Pension Plan (MPP). A portion of the costs of coverage may be shared with MPP.
Pensionable service is the number of years you spent working as a member of the Municipal Pension Plan (MPP), while contributory service is the number of years you made contributions to MPP.

Enrolment

Complete and submit the Enrolment/Change/Termination & Earnings Spreadsheet located at Group Benefits » Enrolment » Enrolment Data Transfer.
Just email the Enrolment team at enrolment@hbt.ca with your Group Number, employee’s name, Benefits ID Number, effective date of status change, and the new status.
Email your spreadsheets to the Enrolment Department.
If you send your spreadsheets after the cutoff date, it will not be updated in the eHAL system until after the invoice is run for the current month. You will be billed based on previous month’s information as an estimate. All adjustments will appear on the following invoice to reflect your actual reporting.
Go to Financial Administration » Contribution Rate Setting. HBT has also created a matrix of what is included in contributory earnings based on the Administration Manual.
Yes. Basic monthly contributory earnings should be reported on the Earnings Spreadsheet.

You may contact the enrolment team at 604-678-6449 or toll free at 1-877-678-6449. Or you may email them at enrolment@hbt.ca

You only are required to report Annual Earnings if your Group Life and Accidental Death and Dismemberment coverage are based on a multiple of earnings.

Finance

Yes, a secure online site is available where you can download your recent invoice in summary or detailed form. The summary invoice will display the amounts owing for each Benefit product set. The detailed invoice will display the amounts owing for each employee within a product set.
Yes, HBT encourages you to save the invoices to your local computer each month for reference.
The invoice is a summation of contributions based on the group Plan rates. The invoice is generated from the most recent Earnings and Enrolment Spreadsheet files received by HBT. The invoice is billed in arrears and reflects actual amounts owing for contributions.
The invoice will be sent out between the 12-15th of the month following the billing period.
Yes, both invoices will be sent at the same time.
This is an organization’s unique identifier.
An invoice number is a unique invoice identifier. You must quote the invoice number when contacting HBT for a query.
Contact HBT Enrolment at enrolment@hbt.ca, or call 1.877.678.6449 to discuss your concerns. If adjustments are required, they will appear on the next invoice.

Group Benefits

No. Enrolment in the HBT Group Benefit Plans is compulsory for all regular employees and dependents who are eligible for coverage regardless of who pays the contributions. The only exception is where a dual coverage Dental and/or Extended Health restriction applies. The employee is not eligible to be enrolled in this Plan.

Health care: The effective dates of coverage for unionized employees are dictated by the collective agreements and can be found in Section XII-H, Pages 2 – 6 of the Administration Manual.

CSSEA: The effective date of coverage for employees covered under the provincial agreements is the first of the month following the 3 month probationary period.

Effective dates of coverage for non-contract or management staff are determined by the employer’s policies and procedures.

An employee and all eligible dependents must be enrolled no later than 60 days following the effective date of coverage. If a late application is submitted for an employee and/or dependents to Pacific Blue Cross, contributions will be retroactive to the effective date of coverage, to a maximum of 12 months of retroactivity.
Information on the effective date coverage terminates for employees and dependents can be found in Section VII, Pages 1-2 of the Administration Manual.
Health care: Casual employees covered by the health care provincial collective agreements are only eligible to purchase Dental and Extended Health Benefits after completing the probationary period. See section XII-H, Pages 8 – 15 of the Administration Manual. CSSEA: Casual employees are not eligible for Benefits.
For information on dual coverage for health care employee groups see Section XII-H, Page 20-24 of the Administration Manual. For information on dual coverage for community social service employee groups see Section XII-C, Pages 4-6 of the Administration Manual.
At the time of the termination it is important that you advise the employee of their conversion options. Group Life and Dependent Life: Employees must submit their conversion application to Great-West Life within 31 days of the date their HBT coverage ends. Dental and/or Extended Health: Employees must submit their conversion applications to Pacific Blue Cross within 60 days of the date their HBT coverage ends. For more information of terminations see Section VII of the Administration Manual.

At the time the leave commences it is important that you advise the employee of the option to purchase Benefits during the leave. You must also obtain the election in writing and keep the election form on file.

Health care: See Section XII, Pages 26-33 of the Administration Manual.

Community Agreement: Employees can not selectively continue coverage. They must purchase all Benefits – i.e. Group Life, Accident Death & Dismemberment (AD&D), Long Term Disability (LTD), Dental and Extended Health Coverage (EHC). Facilities, HSP, Nurses, and PAR-BC Agreements – the employee entitlements vary. For more information see Section XII-H, Page 26 of the Administration Manual. Community Living Services, General Services, and Aboriginal Services Agreements: Employees can selectively continue Group Life, AD&D, LTD, Dependent Life (where applicable), Dental, and EHC.
Employees who are age 65 and older, and who continue to be actively at work beyond age 65, continue to be covered for Group Life, Accident Death & Dismemberment, Dental and Extended Health unless specified otherwise in the applicable collective agreement or Schedule to the Plan Document. See Section XII-H, Page 25 and Section XII-C, Page 7 of the Administration Manual.
You may go back one year for retroactive changes.

Rehabilitation Services

HBT administers a HBT’s Long Term Disability (LTD) Plan and provides Rehabilitation Services to employees eligible for its LTD Plans. Employees can access Rehabilitation Services before an LTD claim occurs, if there is the potential to prevent an LTD claim, or during an LTD claim, if there is the potential to reduce the duration of an LTD claim.
Your Rehabilitation Consultant will work with you, your health care provider and where appropriate your union, to identify the rehabilitation needed to return you to employability. A detailed written Rehabilitation Plan outlines the rehabilitation steps including specific goals, the rehabilitation required to achieve the goals, and related timelines.

The Release of Information Authorization Form completed by the employee, permits the designated representative of the employee’s union to represent the employee or otherwise discharge its duties.

You may wish to involve your union representative during the development of your Rehabilitation Plan. In most cases a union representative is present at your return to work meeting and is available to assist you if you need to appeal an LTD claims decision.

The union contacts below can provide you with your servicing representative contact information:

  • Hospital Employees’ Union Provincial Office: 604-438-5000 or 1-800-663-5813
  • British Columbia Nurses’ Union: 604-433-2268 or 1-800-663-9991
  • Health Sciences Association of British Columbia: 604-439-0994 or 1-800-663-2017
  • BC Government Employees’ Union: 604-291-9611 or 1-800-663-1674

HBT provides Rehabilitation Services and administers a Long Term Disability Plan. To administer programs in respect of an individual experiencing a work disability, HBT needs to be able to collect, use and disclose the individual’s personal Information and diagnostic medical Information. HBT exchanges this information with its agents including Great-West Life Assurance (GWL), as well as health care providers, other service providers, persons authorized within your employer’s organization to respond to work disabilities and designated representatives of your union/bargaining association as is reasonably necessary to achieve one or more of the purposes identified below:

  • help you manage your work disability if you are at work
  • if you are absent from work, confirm the anticipated duration of your leave and assist your employer to manage your absence from work
  • determine the type of work that is suitable given your functional limitations
  • determine if medical or vocational rehabilitation would benefit you and your ability to return to gainful employment
  • permit a collaboration among HBT, its agents including GWL, as well as persons authorized within your employer’s organization to respond to work disabilities, designated representatives of your union/bargaining association, health care providers and other service providers in order to deliver rehabilitation services
  • if you make a claim for Benefits from the Long Term Disability Plan (for which you will complete an additional authorization form), allow for the necessary transfer of information to administer that claim
  • assist your union/bargaining association to discharge its duties

HBT and HBT’s agents will restrict the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information and diagnostic medical Information to that which is necessary to satisfy the purposes set out above.

While respecting the confidential nature of your information, it is important to understand the legal limits to maintaining confidentiality. Your information would be released when:

  • you have signed an Release of Information Authorization Form for another party (e.g., employer, lawyer, union, ICBC)
  • there is legal involvement on a file; file information is released in response to a court order

As a Rehabilitation professional there are limits to confidentiality related to safety and preventing harm. Confidentiality is broken when:

  • there are concerns you will harm yourself or others; your Rehabilitation Consultant will take action by providing information to appropriate parties
  • there are indications of a child being abused or neglected; your Rehabilitation Consultant is required to contact the appropriate community agency to protect that child
There is more information about Long Term Disability (LTD) and Rehabilitation Services in your Group Benefit Plan Booklet, and on the information sheet “To the Employee: Questions and Answers” included in your LTD application package. Your Rehabilitation Consultant will be happy to answer any questions you have when you meet.
Because of the goal of Rehabilitation Services is to shorten or prevent a Long Term Disability (LTD) claim, the cost for providing services is charged to the employer’s LTD pool.